Church Cove, Gunwalloe

Gunwalloe sits on the western shore of the Lizard, looking out across the wide sweep of Mounts Bay. The two sandy coves here, Church Cove and Dollar Cove, are separated by a low rocky outcrop and are cared for by the National Trust, set within the Cornwall National Landscape. Both are sandy at low tide and fringed with rock pools, with Dollar Cove gathering a scatter of boulders at its margins. The setting is dramatic and open, the kind of place that feels properly elemental when the wind comes in off the sea.

Dollar Cove takes its name from a piece of local lore: the Spanish ship San Salvador is said to have been wrecked on the rocks here in the seventeenth century, scattering a cargo of silver coins that have surfaced on the beach ever since. It is one of several shipwreck tales attached to this exposed coast, and the medieval churchyard above the sand is the resting place of sailors lost along it.